If you are booking a room or a resource on behalf of another user using a shared mailbox in Outlook, you may notice that the Contact Person and the Owner are listed as the same person in the Planner, even if you were the one who created the booking. This article explains why this happens and how to ensure the correct information is captured.
Understanding the Behaviour
When a booking is made in Native Outlook (without using the dedicated Planner Outlook Add-in), the system relies on the Microsoft Graph API to sync details to our platform.
By design, Microsoft Exchange prioritises the mailbox owner to ensure that meeting responses (Accept/Decline) are routed correctly. Because of this:
The Owner is set to the Mailbox Owner.
The Contact Person is automatically overwritten by Microsoft with the Mailbox Owner's details.
Microsoft does not currently provide a property through the standard API that identifies the specific delegate who performed the action in Native Outlook.
How to Ensure Correct Syncing
To ensure that you are correctly identified as the Contact Person while booking on behalf of someone else, you should use our integrated tools.
1. Use the Planner Outlook Add-in (Recommended)
When using the Add-in to book a room:
The Add-in explicitly captures your user identity as the creator.
The system will correctly assign the Owner (the person you are booking for) and the Contact Person (you).
2. Planner Web
Bookings made directly via Planner Web will also correctly attribute the Contact Person to the user who is signed in and performing the booking on behalf of another user.
3. Native Outlook Limitations
If you create the event directly in the Outlook calendar interface (Native Outlook) by clicking "New Meeting" in a shared calendar:
The system will sync the event, but both the Owner and Contact Person will appear as the shared mailbox owner.
This is a known limitation of the Microsoft Graph API and cannot be adjusted within our Meetings solution.
Summary Table
Booking Method | Resulting Owner | Resulting Contact Person |
Planner Outlook Add-in | Mailbox Owner | Actual Booker |
Planner Web | Mailbox Owner | Actual Booker |
Native Outlook | Mailbox Owner | Mailbox Owner |